Air Force the Official Service Journal - Air Force Historical Studies ...

THE
AIR WAR
IN THE
SOUTHWEST
PACIFIC
By Col. B. B. Cain
Far East Air Forces
30
"WI. \\111come buck and make the J.lpS P,I) a h uud ieelfold
m death and dcvtuu tiou."
'I'ha t \\,IS the glllll plcd¥c nuu]c 1)\ .1 h.mcl iul of
vurv 1\ ors of the pnn~ U, S, I, ,J[ Lastcrn An I. orce
that lIas all hut wipc«] out in the Ph il ippincx.
Today one emhodiment of that pledge is the mighh' lar
I':ast Air Forces. comprising the U, S, 'ith and ] )th Air
!"orces in the South\\est Pncific, which. under command of
Lr. Ccu. Ceorge C, Kenney, paid the first inst.ilhucut on
tll:lt deht on the night of ,\m;llSt :; wlrcn a 13-::-1 on :1 ITcounn
issa nee III iss ion born bed Sassa a ird rom e north of Da \";]0,
The present contraction of the [np.mc:«: air force into
their Philippines stronghold is the action of a beast th.it
knOll'S it is hurt and about to die, cornered but cLlI1gerol!\,
Rcc.rptur« of the Philippines to the Amcric.m miucl is
almost an end in itself, a matter of national honor. \\'hen
the day comes that our planes once more take off from
Nichols and Clark fields, this time with homhs for Tokvo. we
will he compcuxatcd for the long and bitter strtlgg1c' :dong
the road back to the Philippines across the South\\'est
Pacific from Auxt r.iliu ,
At the heginning of the war the [ap.mc:«, m ilit.irv machine
\\':IS an almost perfect offensive unit. For years the lap
had been tr.iincd in offense, I lis whole movrrucnt \\'as baxcd
on advance or die, and inasmuch as he had been convinced
bv these teachings that death meant a beautiful after life, he
\\"as quite ready to die, and apparenth' still is,
The speed of his uclv.mcc after Pearl J l.rrbor heeonles
almost hrcathlcs» when one realizes that \LiniLl fell on
[anu.uv ::, 19-1::, and tbat ] S clays LIter he \\;Lssoftening IIp
Rab.rul, in 0:e\\' Brituin. Rab.iul fell three cLI\'S later and
bcc.unc the Jap's principal forward supply depot,' Duriiu; the
next month thc Japanese stc.nurollcr O\Tr-LII1 Borneo, Timor
in the Dntch !':;l.st Inches, .md Sing;lpore; tlIe rest of :'\C\I
Hrit.uu CIIlIC into [up possession, .i ncl from hlscs clptmnl :It
Lac .md Salaln;llla ,dong the cast coast of 0:el\' Guinea the
];'P II:IS
itsclf.
bombing Port \/oresby ;Inel tllre;ltenillg .\ustralia
Lnh' in \ lurch the laps rocketed into ';1\;1 on one sick
.md oCCllpied Boug;lin,iJle in the SO]OInollS 011 the other,
Their t;letics .mcl str;lteg\' \HTe superb: bold lc;lpS. terrific
shock, \Icc,ting more opposition than .mticipatcd at am' one
s]Jot. thcv II ouic! ])\-P;ISS it ;Inel tlkc .ruoth«r. fln;t1h'